A Cold Morning, Loch Lomond Painting

I am an artist living and working in Scotland and much of my art work is made in response to the stunning scenery I am fortunate to be surrounded by. It is the sense of wellbeing that being in a natural environment creates that I am trying to capture. I love to use vivid colours, strong shapes and expressive marks to tackle this.Being outdoors and travelling is an essential part of my inspiration and I use my sketchbook to record my observations of the landscape, lochs and coastlines that I experience. This provides the starting point for every painting I produce. It is this sketchbook work, alongside my memory of the place and the process of using the materials, that inspires my paintings. I am always looking for new ways to define a particular location and communicate the beauty and energy I see in the places I travel to. I repeatedly draw and paint the same scene and look to capture how the different elements: trees, water and sky, can alter depending on time, my perspective or weather.I work mainly with ink and acrylic paint and build layer upon layer of colour and subtle texture to create my abstracted representations of any given place. It is the cool greens and blues of the countryside that I am drawn to but I also enjoy incorporating shots of vibrant and contrasting colour. In the early stages of my painting I use the fluidity of the materials to build a sense of chance and use this as a foundation to paint into, allowing for the freer interpretation of a particular location to evolve. As the painting progresses I rely less on my sketchbook and more on my memory of the place and the feeling I am looking to communicate.